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‘Sympathy’: See the Terrorist Paintings by Norman Rockwell’s Granddaughter

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Daisy Rockwell isn’t necessarily following in her grandfather’s footsteps. While Grandpa Norman painted iconic American scenes, his granddaughter Daisy Rockwell is making a name for herself by painting terrorists. And she apparently has a “sympathy” for them.

According to Daisy, she’s trying to paint terrorists — literally — in a different light.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, who was arrested on his way to a terror camp in Somalia. He wanted to take his cat, Tuna Princess, with him.

“We are supposed to think that those who wish America ill are motivated by evil and to not think any further than that,” she told CNN. “(But America) has spent quite a bit of time meddling in the affairs of other countries. Whether we like it or not, there are plenty of reasons out there for people to wish us ill as a country.”

Osama bin Laden

So what are the paintings all about? CNN explains:

For the better part of the past decade, under the pseudonym “Lapata,” Daisy Rockwell has been creating images of terror suspects in unexpected poses.

In one piece, Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, a New Jersey man arrested for allegedly trying to join a terrorist group in Somalia, is cuddling his cat.

In another, Aafia Siddiqui, currently serving 86 years for attempting to kill U.S. nationals, is seen on her graduation day.

Rockwell told CNN the innocent-looking portraits – based on actual photographs of her subjects – were intentional and her way of “dismantling the aura of fear” that surrounds these people, to better understand their actions.

“When you look that closely at someone, you almost always develop sympathy for them,” she added. “It’s like sitting next to someone for a long bus ride. … I want to think about who these people are and why they made the choices they did. I want to share the results of my thoughts, which are my paintings, with other people.”

Saddam Hussein

In fact, she seems to have a special connection with bin Laden.

“We take for granted who he was and what he did and why, and stop thinking of him as a human being with profoundly human motivations. The war on terror is quite bizarre, when you think about it, because it’s a war on an emotion – fear. At least, that is what we are told. Instead of just being at war, we are trying to stamp out fear itself.”